JK Rowling says backlash over trans views is being used to silence others

JK Rowling says the threats and intimidation she has faced for her stance on transgender issues have been used to scare other women into silence. 

Speaking on a new podcast, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author said: ‘I have had direct threats of violence and people coming to my house where my kids live and I’ve had my address posted online. 

‘I’ve had what the police regard as credible threats. The pushback is often ”You are wealthy. You can afford security. You haven’t been silenced”.

‘All of that is true, but that misses the point. The attempt to intimidate and silence me is meant to serve as a warning to other women. And I say that because I have seen it used that way.

‘I have seen other women, and other women have told me they have been told ”look what happened to JK Rowling – watch yourself”.’

JK Rowling tells a new podcast that the threads and intimation she has received for her views on trans issues are being used to silence other women 

Ms Rowling, 57, said she had long been aware of the rise of ‘a kind of puritanism’ that is ‘very illiberal’. 

Speaking to podcast host Megan Phelps-Roper, she also lamented the increasing prevalence of a form of ‘authoritarianism’ which ‘crosses all political persuasions’. 

The author then discussed the issue of online bullying, revealing how she was trolled by Harry Potter readers after secretly joining a fans’ forum.

She said: ‘I chose a random name and went into this chat room where people were sharing some theories.

‘I gave an opinion that was very bland and I got rounded on by users who told me in no uncertain terms just to get out. I’m not familiar in that room, I’m clearly an idiot who doesn’t know anything. And I left.

‘I had written three and a half books at that time where bullying is such a theme. From the very first page bullying and authoritarian behaviour is held to be one of the worst of human ills.

‘And look what just happened. And these people who call themselves such fans of this franchise.

‘What if I had been a 12-year-old girl who was excited to go into this room and is immediately, caustically chastised for not belonging?

Speaking on a new podcast, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author said: ‘I have had direct threats of violence and people coming to my house where my kids live and I’ve had my address posted online’

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‘I thought that was so interesting that you’re passionate about these books and yet in the course of living you are behaving in a way that I depict as one of the worst human behaviours.’

She added: ‘There were individual trolls on the forums purely there to be objectionable. It was a fringe, but it was definitely there.

‘At first I thought it was kind of amusing, but as time went on I started to really see it as bullying.

‘There was an edge of picking off vulnerable people and I was very aware by that time that a lot of kids who felt themselves to be outsiders were finding themselves in Potter.

‘I felt protective of those people, so watching trolls operate in those spaces began to concern me.’  

Ms Rowling has repeatedly insisted on the biological immutability of biological sex and questioned whether trans women should be allowed access to some female-only spaces.

Earlier this year, Bafta-nominated composer Christian Henson stepped down from the £55.1million company he founded after he was hounded by LGBTQI+ activists for supporting the author’s views.